Marketing Professor, Dr. Aaron Ahuvia and host, Jeffrey Besecker discussed the psychology of love and how it applies to why people love 'things', with Aaron being the first to publish empirical work on the topic.   

They discussed how pleasure and identity are two factors that guide people to the things they love, and how love is connected to bonding in other mammals. 

He explains that when people have a strong, positive attachment to their parents, they build a model in their head that the world is a safe place and it is easier to form relationships. He also talks about how people who have difficulty in their relationships with people may substitute pets for people. 

Jeffrey Besecker and Aaron Ahuvia discussed how people's attachment to objects often connects them to people, and how people with a lack of social relationships may substitute objects for people. 

When it comes to our stuff - Is It Really Love?

They also discussed how people's brains sort people and objects differently, and how hoarding can be caused by a malfunction in the brain's sorting mechanism. 

Aaron Ahuvia discussed how people's brains process objects and people differently, and how companies use anthropomorphism, connections to people, and identity to create emotional connections with their products. 

 Aaron Ahuvia and Jeffrey Besecker discussed how people form relationships with objects and how those objects can be used to build stronger communities and relationships with people. 

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Featured Guests:

Credits: 

Music Score by Epidemic Sound

Executive Producer: Jeffrey Besecker

Mixing, Engineering, Production, and Mastering: Aloft Media Studio

Senior Program Director: Anna Getz

Resources:

The Things We Love – How Our Passions Connect Us and Make Us Who We Are

Possessions and identity: reflections on the work of Russell Belk

Anthropomorphism and the things we love

The things we love and identity conflicts